


My Wish Upon a Star

by b99xperaltiago



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-15
Updated: 2019-12-28
Packaged: 2020-03-06 00:34:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18840007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/b99xperaltiago/pseuds/b99xperaltiago
Summary: "Why are they breaking up couples if they're not in the same house?" She asks.Before Gina can reply, Jake butts in, staring blankly at the table as he says, "It's this new experiment they're trying. They're attempting to see if they can set people up to search for their soulmates, their "perfect match". If you're not dating someone in the same house as you, it's considered unfit. They give you a week to fix it and break up with the person and if you don't, both of you are suspended until you do break up.""Where did you learn that?" Amy asks."Have you been living under a rock, Santiago? It's everywhere." Jake asks.Gina and Rosa both smile in his direction and point at him as if his response was obvious.





	1. just turned sixteen, head strong, taking on the world alone

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, I promise this will be my last multichapter until I finish one of my like 4 WIP's XD I just really wanted to get this one published!
> 
> (the thing Amy says about school being a like a puzzle is actually something my head of house has said to my house at school and it's the only thing that's actually stuck :))
> 
> Chapter title from 'Tell You' by Bryan Lanning :)

Holt looked up at the student as they passed him to walk to his desk. He stops himself from writing the lesson plan on the board and turns to the student who had just walked in five minutes after the bell. "Mister Peralta, what time do you call this?"

Jake stopped in the middle of the classroom and turned to the teacher. His shirt was untucked, his hair looked as if he had been pulled through bushes backward, his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, his bag slung over one shoulder and his tie was half-way down his chest. "Sorry, sir, I didn't know where I was supposed to be." He pulled out a blatant lie.

Holt looked at him sternly before pointing down at the student's uniform. "Roll your sleeves down and tuck your shirt in, you're in school, not a zoo."

Jake groans and rolls down his sleeves to his blazer and tucks his shirt in before taking his seat in the back row.

Holt continues to write on the board, turning his back from the class. Jake leans forward and taps the shoulder of the girl sitting in front of him.

Amy turns back and annoyingly glances at him. "Yes, Jake?"

"Do you have a pen I could borrow? I forgot mine." He whispers.

"You didn't bring one to the first day of school?"

He looks at her as if the answer was obvious. She rolls her eyes a second time - the first having been when he walked in a minute ago. She digs through her pencil case before turning around again and lending Jake the pen.

"You're sixteen now, Jake. Time to be more organized."

"There's a reason why I'm not in your house, Santiago. I'm not organized. I'm the class clown." He brags somewhat truthfully.

Amy nods, rolling her eyes a little before facing the front again, listening as Holt began to speak.

The houses Jake was referring to were the school houses: Lynn (Red), Cooper (Yellow), Syed (Green), and Eden (Blue). In Amy's opinion, the housing system was the best part of the entire school. Finding out the particular students personalities and placing them in an appropriate house, the house best fitted for them. The whole thing was exhilarating and reminded her of the best franchise made in her opinion: Harry Potter.

If you found someone in the Lynn house, their personality mirrored around being: sarcastic, intimidating, harsh, threatening, or if they were classed as a "Type C" person. If someone was in the Cooper house, their personality was mirrored around being: bubbly overly-excited, naïve, social butterflies, or if they were classed as a "Type D" person. If someone was in the Syed house, their personality mirrored around being: athletic, humorous, annoying at times (or in Jake's case, all the time), competitive, or if they were classed as a "Type B" person. If someone was in the Eden house, their personality mirrored around being: intelligent, organized, competitive, creative, or if they were classed as a "Type A" person. Amy herself was placed inside the Eden house, the second Eden in the house of Santiago, following her older brother Lukas. Danny was placed in Syed the year before Lukas started.

It couldn't have been two minutes later when she felt Jake's finger against her shoulder again.

"This is really important." Jake whispers, leaning so far forward in his desk it was surprising he could still talk.

She turns around and faces him. "Yes?" She asks, hiding the angry in her voice for him disrupting the lesson.

"What are you doing at break?" He whispered.

"How is that anything important?" Amy asks, raising her eyebrows at him.

"Break is important to me, so it still counts." Jake smiles at her broadly.

She rolls her eyes and looks to him. "I don't know, maybe hang out in the library."

Jake then shakes his head. "No, Ames, don't do that."

Amy slides past the pet name he placed halfway through. "Why not?"

"Come and sit with us in the cafeteria. You did it all the time last year."

"Yeah, and that was before you broke Teddy and I up." Amy shoots a glare at him.

"Oh, come on, you were going to break up with him anyway, I saved you the trouble." Jake attempts to reason.

Before she can say anymore, Holt calls her out, making her swiftly turn around in her seat, worry present on her face. "Santiago, something you would like to share with the class?"

"It wasn't me, sir... Peralta was the one who was talking." She points to Jake behind her.

Holt glares at the male student before shaking his head. "What is with your tie today?" He points it out. "You might not as well be wearing one."

Jake grins. "That would be great, sir."

"Straighten it out." He strictly instructs.

Jake groans and moved his tie up to the collar of his shirt.

"See? Not that hard." Holt mentions before continuing with his class.

A moment passes and when Holt turns his back on them, Jake leans forward, whispering to Amy again.

"What do you say? You coming to the cafeteria at break?"

Amy turns to him subtly, keeping her eyes on the teacher at the front of the class in case he was to turn around again. "I'll think about it."

* * *

As soon as the bell rang, marking the end of the third period, Amy gathered her things and left the classroom. She stopped by her locker, putting in the books from her science class and gathering the books for her period after the break. Those books went in her bag before she made her way to the cafeteria.

When she walked in, her eyes fell immediately to the table Jake was sat at (or, in fact, sat on), him surrounded by his friends. She approached and Jake shouted out a cheer as she sat down.

"Amy, you made it!" Charles says loudly across the table, smiling widely at her. His over-happiness was the reason he was placed in Cooper two years ago. "Jake was saying you might be here."

Sat next to the happy boy were two of Jake's oldest friends, Gina and Rosa. Jake had known Gina since kindergarten, and they had a bond not even many blood siblings have. Rosa and Jake had known each other since the fifth grade after Rosa pushed off the elementary school bully by pulling out a stick she had sharpened with a pair of scissors and stabbing him in the stomach to protect Jake from him (inevitably she then got suspended from school for a week). The two of them were put into Lynn, Gina for being sarcastic and threatening, and Rosa for being the entire list of reasons.

Gina groans slightly. "Oh, sweet pea, we're in the eleventh grade now, why are you still so particular about your uniform?" She asks over to Amy.

She did have a point. Since the beginning of high school, Amy had been very pristine about her uniform. She always made sure her tie was straightened, her skirt was always pleated, her tights weren't messy, and that the badges on her blazer were straight and well presented.

"Because it brings the school out in a positive light. If our uniform is layed out correctly, it shows the school's entirety as a whole." Amy responds.

Jake puts the palm of his hand to cover his mouth and blows into it, making a farting noise that Charles seemed to encourage and praise him after. "No, it's to make us all look like dummies so they can play us till we fall to the floor in exhaustion because the ties restrict air flow," he sighs, "in my opinion, it's bullshit and we shouldn't do it."

"Mister Peralta," the same monotone voice from an hour and fifteen minutes ago is heard again from behind him, "did I hear a curse?"

Jake looks to him. "Yeah, so what?" He shrugs his shoulders.

Holt drops the conversation and changes it. "What has happened to your tie?" Like at the beginning of the English class, Jake's tie was halfway down his chest again. "Sort it out." The teacher instructs.

Jake reluctantly pulls his tie up to his collar. "Sir, why do we have to bother with uniforms? We're like the only school in the States that bothers with the uniform." He states matter-of-factly.

"It separates this school from the large array of others. It sets us apart. We stand out, Peralta."

"Right, but why bother with the whole housing situation?" Jake wonders.

"So it is easier to get along people you have a lot in common with. It's setting you up for the future." Holt responds before going to leave upon issue on the other side of the cafeteria arising. Before he leaves though, he turns back to Jake. "The table is for eating, not for sitting on, mister Peralta." He then watched sternly until Jake was sat on one of the seats surrounding the circular table before going off.

Gina pipes up another conversation. "Did you guys hear about Carina Woodcock?" Everyone at the table shakes their head, making Gina continue. "Apparently she isn't allowed to return back to school until she and Ed Morrison break up."

"What? Why not?" Amy asks across the table, her eyes having gone wide.

"Why do you think? The two of them were in different houses." Gina replies.

"So they're making them break up because they aren't in the same house? What's up with that? Love is love." Charles butts in.

"Oh, but apparently she was only using him to get back at her ex." Gina adds.

Rosa looks to Gina slightly shocked. "Where do you get this stuff?" She asks.

"I'm the queen of the school, and my throne is popularity. Ask me anything and I'll have a slightly trustable answer in minutes." Gina brags with pride.

Amy leans across the table. "Why are they breaking up couples if they're not in the same house?" She asks.

Before Gina can reply, Jake butts in, staring blankly at the table as he says, "It's this new experiment they're trying. They're attempting to see if they can set people up to search for their soulmates, their _"perfect match"_. If you're not dating someone in the same house as you, it's considered unfit. They give you a week to fix it and break up with the person and if you don't, both of you are suspended until you do break up."

"Where did _you_ learn that?" Amy asks.

"Have you been living under a rock, Santiago? It's everywhere." Jake asks.

Gina and Rosa both smile in his direction and point at him as if his response was obvious.

"That's still unbelievable. Why break up a couple if they're in a different house? When you're in love, you've got to imagine as if every person you're with as your soulmate. Sometimes being the polar opposite of each other can actually be better, because you help each other be better people." Charles says before his gaze drops to both Jake and Amy with a smile.

Amy pretends to ignore the glance as Jake glares at Charles. "Really? You're still on that?" Jake asks.

Charles smiles widely as he nods. "You guys are perfect for each other. If they hadn't introduced this new experiment, you two could finally realize you're meant to be."

Jake laughs slightly. "Thanks, Charles, but no cigar," he sighs, tired of hearing his best friend's argument over and over again, "plus, Santiago's too uptight to break the rules and risk missing school."

"Missing school is always a terrible idea. You've got to think as if every day of school is a piece of a puzzle, and every time you miss a day, you lose a puzzle piece."

Much like last time Amy went on a ranting spree, Jake responds by blowing into the palm of his hand, making Charles laugh and Gina snicker.

The bell rings and the entire of the cafeteria stands up and heads toward the two exit doors to the corridors for fourth lesson.

In the corner of her eye, Amy sees Jake tug at his tie again and pull it back down to his chest. She looks up to him. "Why do you do that? Disobey the rules after Holt has told you hundreds of times to keep your tie at the collar."

"It's only been three times, Santiago," he then uses his fingers to count them, "one: during homeroom, two: during English, and three: about five minutes ago." He corrects.

"So why do you still continue to ignore him?" Amy wonders.

"Because I'm a rebel," his statement makes Amy roll her eyes, "and also you look cute when I on purposely muck around with my uniform and you're trying your hardest not to fix it."

Amy hints a smile to hide the slight blush. "I'm really trying." She then glares at him as he shows off a grin.

* * *

The guys changing room had always been a weird place, but with the new kid standing on the benches screaming slightly while having no shirt on made it even weirder.

Jake looks to Charles with his eyebrows raised. "Who is that new kid?" He wonders. He didn't need to whisper, the kid's screams were loud enough to cover up any other noise.

"His name's Adrian." Charles responds as he begins to tie his shoes up.

"Why's he screaming?" Jake questions.

Charles shrugs slightly. "Apparently he's never been to school before and he's been home-schooled for the past twelve years, yet I don't think he learned much as he was in my maths class fourth period and he didn't seem to know that much on the topic."

"Well, if he's been home-schooled I can see why. You sit at home while being taught by your parents or tutor. That's the breezy life right there." Jake chuckles slightly as they both exited the changing rooms and entered into the main gymnasium hall.

"Hey, I forgot to ask, how were fourth and fifth for you?" Charles asks as the two boys sit behind the few people ready for the class.

"Ur, they were alright. I have to sit next to Santiago in maths, which is alright cause I can just copy her answers, and I sit with Gina in the back of science, so we did nothing that lesson and just doodled on the paper."

Charles smiles at him with admiration. "That sounds awesome."

Jake awkwardly shifts away an inch and nervously scratches at the back of his head. "Thanks, Charles." He mumbles through a nervous laugh.

Suddenly the half-naked kid from the changing room approaches them both and sits directly behind them - luckily this time he had his PE shirt on.

"I heard you guys talking about me." He says suddenly, leaning in close to them both.

Charles quickly shakes his head over and over again. Jake stumbles for a moment before coming face to face with this kid he had known for ten minutes. "I was just asking who you were, I've never seen you before."

The kid with the long and messy black hair and stubble of a beard growing through outstretched his hand at the two boys in front of him. "I'm Adrian. Adrian Pimento." He introduces himself with a smile.

"I'm Jake," he shakes Adrian's hand, "and this is my main man Charles."

Charles awkwardly waves at Adrian, letting out a hushed "hi".

"It's nice to meet you both."

* * *

Lunch quickly came and went, and Jake swore he hadn't laughed so much in his entire life. Rosa and Gina had taken the piss out of a freshman who had sat on the other side of their table before they all went outside, where the three of them continued to bring up the incident over and over again, the mocking getting more and more harsh every time - meaning it was getting funnier and funnier.

But unfortunately, the bell for afternoon homeroom came way too quickly, and even that session of complete silence went all to quick too. Which now left Jake shuffling toward seventh and - thankfully - final period.

As he turned the corner in the corridor, he caught sight of room 109, and line outside. That was the queue of people he would have to put up with for the next year.

When he got closer, he noticed and recognized the familiar black backpack and black curly hair, which made him smile slightly. At least he knew somebody in this class.

He approached her with the same smile and was careful not to scare her. "Hey, Rosa." He says with a smile.

His friend turns to face him and smiles weakly. She nods slightly in his direction but doesn't say anything. Before he can say anything to spark another conversation, the teacher appears in the doorway from inside the classroom and invites the class in and tells them to stand by the back wall.

He returns back to his desk and sits in the chair before smiling widely to the class. "Good afternoon, class," he says, "now, before I allow you to sit in your own way, I need to get to know you first, so I have put you all in the order of your last names-" he clicks a remote to the whiteboard, appearing an ordination of which students sat where "-this will be it until I get to know you better."

Jake looks up at the screen. Not only was Rosa across the room, but he was also sat next to someone he'd prefer not to. He sighs toward his friend. "Oh, are you kidding me? Is there no one with the last name beginning with Q or R?"

Rosa snorts out a laugh. "Ha, you're stuck with Amy."

The teacher directs them all to their seats and begins the lesson. A few minutes later, the door bursts open again, revealing a disheveled Amy. Jake can't help but sit up in his seat with anticipation for hearing the reason as to why she was late.

"Sorry I'm late, sir, I was talking to Mister Holt about an issue in homeroom."

The teacher, who had introduced himself as Mister Scully a moment before, smiles at her and asks her name.

"Amy. Amy Santiago, sir." She hesitatingly replied.

He looks to the board behind him before back at Amy. "You're sat next to Jake."

Amy makes eye contact with the boy sat in the back of the room, who happened to be smiling widely to her. She sighs audibly before going through the desks and sitting beside Jake.

A moment of silence between them, and over Scully as he continued the lesson, Jake leans in closer to Amy as she pulled out her stuff. "If it's any help, I don't like being here either."

Amy turns to him with her eyebrows furrowed. "How come I always get stuck next to you if we share a lesson?"

Jake shrugs. "Don't ask me, all I can say is that I hate it."

"Well, it's no picnic for me either."


	2. you're worse than the pyramids

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this one is much shorter than the last one and I did have a lot of things I wanted to write, but I decided they'd fit better in the next chapter to go along with the storyline I've made. 
> 
> Also, I knew I had to have a TLI song on here, so there: Chapter title from 'Mona Lisa' by The Lonely Island :)

It's the first thing Jake hears. "Jacob!" The voice is stern and gruff, and it sounds as though the person saying it had had more than four cups of coffee. "Jacob!" He hears it a second time, making him open his eyes sharply, lifting his head off the palm of his hand and looking around his surroundings. 

_Oh, shit..._ he thought quickly to himself as he turns to the front of the classroom, being met with the narrow, beady eyes of the science teacher - Mister Kelly - staring straight at him. 

"Were you asleep?" Kelly asks, keeping his glare locked in on this particular student sat in the back. 

Jake hesitates with his response slightly as he sits up in his chair. "No." He lied, attempting to keep his voice from giving it away. 

Kelly gives off a weak smile to the whole class before directing his gaze solely at Jake again. "Great, what's the answer?" He wonders.

"Urmmm..." Jake trails off, looking around for any sort of clue - the question written on the board in the front for example - to no avail.

From the seat next to him, Gina leans in closer subtly. "The powerhouse of the cell." She whispers, not moving her lips as not to get caught by Kelly.

"Hm?" He hums quietly back, not hearing her answer completely.

"The powerhouse of the cell." She repeats a little louder for him to hear, but again subtly so as not to be caught.

Jake sits up a little straighter, almost sitting up vertical. "The powerhouse of the cell." He announces confidently.

The room goes quiet, everyone turns in the seats to stare at him. Gina snickers in the seat beside him. It's Kelly that eventually breaks the silence.

"No, Jacob, the equation for density is not 'the powerhouse of the cell'." He sighs, returning to his desk from where he was standing in the middle of the room. A second goes by from this before he looks up from his computer back up to Jake. "Stay after the end of the class, please."

Jake groans slightly before hearing another snicker from Gina on his right. He turns his head to her and glares to her. "You bitch." 

Gina throws her arms up subtly. "Not my fault, you fell asleep, I saw an opportunity and I took it."

* * *

Quickly after he enters the cafeteria, he finds the table in the back of the room that he and his friends had taken claim to a few months or so ago. He throws his bag down carefully on the surface, as not to hit Rosa behind him as he took it off and not to hit Amy and Charles already sitting at the table, before crashing down on the seat.

Charles looks with wide eyes but doesn't say anything as not to tick off his friend any more than he already was. Amy takes the silence and asks instead. "What's wrong with you?" She wonders.

Rosa, who had now sat beside Jake, speaks up in honor of Jake as he gently hit his head against the table. "He's got an after school detention."

"What? It's the second day! How did you manage that?" Amy asks loudly, but luckily quiet enough for the entire room to ignore the tables conversation.

Jake looks up from the table and points behind Charles, to Gina. "Ask her, it's her fault."

Gina sits down beside Rosa and furrows her eyebrows. "What did I do?" She wonders, looking somewhat hurt on being accused for something she was most likely to have done.

"I got an after school for falling asleep in Kelly's lesson." Jake sighs.

Charles erupts into a mountain of complaints, "What? That's all you did? That's ridiculous!" were just a few of them. 

Rosa cuts in Charles' noise. "Well, you got a lunchtime detention for falling asleep during first period and then a second one for being _forty-five minutes_ late for second period."

"Oh my god, why were you so late to second period?" Amy wonders, raising her eyebrows.

Jake raises his hand up. "That wasn't my fault! Kelly had a free period second lesson, he would've talked my ear off all lesson if he hadn't realized I was supposed to be somewhere." 

A beat of silence passes before Amy breaks it again. "Why's this such a big deal now? You used to brag in freshman and sophomore year about getting after school detentions." She questions.

Jake sighs. "My uncle said that if I had any more after school detentions there would be consequences."

"Why is your uncle making the rules for you?" Amy asks.

"Because my mom works two jobs and my dad is... well, he's somewhere." He replies, looking down at his bag still sat on top of the table.

"What did your uncle say the consequences would be?" Charles wonders, leaning on the table slightly.

Jake shrugs his shoulders. "It won't be anything too bad... it'd probably be making me eat a bowl of vegetables or drinking eight glasses of water a day, that sort of stuff."

Amy looks up to him with wide eyes. "That's punishment for you? You should be doing that anyway." She mentions.

Jake can't help but roll his eyes. "C'mon Amy, this isn't the time to be making jokes."

* * *

Six minutes after the bell for the first period rang, Jake wanders through the door to history and makes his way to the back of the classroom and casually took his seat beside Amy.

"We came from the same place, how am I here before you?" She wonders. They sat in the back, so she didn't really have to think about the volume as to which she spoke, as long as it wasn't really loud, it was good to go. 

Jake shrugs. "It's probably because you're too worried about being late to a lesson that you go straight there. Me on the other hand, I don't particularly care if I'm late, so I took a little detour with Gina around second floor a couple times before ending up here, stuck next to you." 

Amy rolls her eyes subtly before starting up another conversation. "How was your detention last night?"

He hides away a small smile. "Not that bad actually. It was only me in there, which is unsurprising seen as it's the first week back and everyone seems to be trying this whole _'new year, new me'_ kinda crap."

"Hey, it's not crap, it can be useful. Even I'm trying it this year." Amy breaks in.

"Why are you doing it? You're already dorky as it is." He wonders, a small grin plastered on his face.

"I'm not doing it in lessons, just in between. My brother David started freshman year on Monday, and I get a little competitive with him sometimes."

"God, how many brothers do you have? I swear you mention a new one every day." Jake wonders.

"I have seven, Jake." 

Jake looks a little surprised. "Wow, seven more Amy's... how do your parents cope?" He asks with a grin.

Amy playfully hits his arm before saying, "They're not all like me. Danny's more like you than anything." 

"Right," he says before going quiet for a moment as if in thought. After a beat, he speaks up again, "Six more Amy's. How do your-" he begins up again before Amy hits his arm again, making him stop.

She looks to the front for a brief moment, making notes on what the teacher was saying. A moment goes by before she turns her attention to him briefly and whispers, "You're an ass." Before returning her gaze back to the front of the class.

In the corner of her eye, she can see Jake nod his head and lean back in his chair, keeping his hand grasped on the table as not to tip back like last time. "I know." He whispers back, a small smile plastered on his face.


	3. i saw something in you it's got me shaking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On with chapter 3... I won't write much, other than Enjoy!
> 
> Chapter title from 'I Think I'm in Love' by Kat Dahlia :)

The walk home is usually quiet. Amy walks ahead of her brothers, avoiding their conversations at any cost - she lived with them so she was sure she would hear the stories they told on the way home again over dinner anyways and she'd rather not hear it a second time.

She halfway home - with two of her brothers ten or so feet behind - when she hears a voice from beside her. She turns in the direction and sees Jake coming toward her. She smiles at him and continues walking.

"Why are you walking alone?" He questions when he had caught her up.

Amy stops in her tracks and turns her head around to her brothers walking slower than an elderly couple. She points in their direction. "I never walk alone, but I always get ahead of them because they are so slow." She says with a small laugh.

Jake nods slowly. "Oh, okay then." He mumbles before going quiet for a brief moment as they walked down the street together. After a beat he asks, "So, how was the rest of your day?"

She pauses for a moment before nodding. "It was good, yeah," she replies, looking up at him before quickly gazing down at his hand - which was bandaged up earlier that day, "How's your hand?" She wonders.

His gaze drops down to the bandage briefly as a small smile creeps up on his face before he turns his attention back on to Amy. "Much better now, still hurts a little though."

Amy smiles. "What exactly did you do to your hand? You never told me." She asks, furrowing her eyebrows slightly.

Jake lets out a small, stubborn sigh before looking at Amy with a subtle smile. "I hit my hand on a machine earlier in tech. I tucked my thumb in and Rosa reckons I've damaged my thumb badly, but I think a few days rest and I'll be fine."

Amy widens her eyes. "You might wanna go to the hospital, Jake, that can't be good." She can't help but laugh slightly.

He blows it off, shaking his head with a grin. "Nah, I'll be fine."

She rolls her eyes. "If a car came out and hit you would you go to the hospital then?" She wonders.

"Well, yeah, of course." Jake replies, looking to her as if his response is obvious.

Amy nods. "Great, do me a favor and step out in front of the next car that comes through the street." She instructs.

Jake half-laughs and half-gasps. "What! Why?"

She hits his shoulder gently, a huge smile spread across her face. "Because then you would go to the hospital and you can get your hand checked out," she says, looking at him with concern - before he can add anything, she continues, "You've obviously hurt your hand, Jake, you even couldn't write earlier."

He nods and smiles gently. "About that, thanks for helping me out."

Amy blows it off with her hand. "Don't worry about it, it's what friends do, they help each other out."

Jake pauses for a moment before asking, "We're friends?" He sounds shocked.

She nods, looking at him genuinely. "Of course we're friends, we have been since we were seven. What did you think we were?" She asks.

He shrugs. "I know we were friends, but I thought you hated me since I broke you and Teddy up last year."

Amy shakes her head. "I was going to anyway so that means I don't hate you, dumbass. You're like my best friend, even though you can be an utter ass sometimes."

"I have been told hundreds of times by you alone that I'm an ass," Jake says, nodding along with what she said, "But I'm glad we're still friends." He adds with a smirk.

"Me too." Amy responds, returning the small smile.

* * *

_(Three Months Later)_

From the corner of her eye, Amy can see Jake's face drop as the test paper is placed on the desk in front of him. She changes her gaze from her own paper and shifts it down to Jake's quickly before staring back up at him sat beside her. "Okay, we've had three papers given back to us today alone and you've failed all three of them."

Jake nods. "You don't need to remind me." He sighs, pressing his fingers against his temples as he hangs his head low, staring at the paper in front of him. "It's an English paper, how did I do this badly? English is my first language."

"That's not what we do in this lesson, Jake, do you pay attention at all?" Amy asks.

Jake looks up to Amy and raises his eyebrows. "Mm? What did you say, I wasn't paying attention."

Amy nods, looking back down to her own paper. "Case open and shut."

A silent moment passes by while the two students as they both began looking through their results as instructed by Holt. Suddenly, Jake breaks the silence between them though as Amy is about to turn over to the second page of the test paper. "Will you help me?" He asks.

Amy looks up to him with wide eyes and raised eyebrows. "What did you just say?" She wonders, holding back a choke on thin air.

"I asked if you would help me." He repeats.

A small and quiet laugh escapes from Amy's mouth before she can register it before she sees the seriousness in her friend's face. "Oh, you were being serious." She says, stopping the giggles immediately.

"Of course I was being serious, Santiago," Jake sighs, "I really stuffed these practice midterms up, what if I fuck up the end of semester exams? I'm saying this as your friend and your friend only so don't get the wrong idea because you still piss me off from time to time, but you're like the smartest person I know and I could really use your help, please."

She hesitates for a moment before nodding. "Alright, I'll help you, but you follow by my rules, got it?"

Jake nods. "Yes, I got it, thank you." He says with a wide smile.

* * *

_"You offered to help Jake Peralta?"_ Kylie asks, her voice coming through the speakers of the phone a little loudly after Amy tells her the story of what had happened earlier that day, _"After everything he did?"_

"You should have seen his grades, Kylie, they were bad and he sounded genuine for need the help," Amy reasons, looking up at the phone slightly, bringing her attention off the book she was reading, "And that stuff happened in the third grade, they weren't even real feelings then."

_"I know, but he still hurt you."_ She sighs.

Amy can't help but smile at her friend's concern. "Eight years ago, and he's helped me since then, it's like I'm returning the favor."

_"Since when has he helped you?"_ Kylie wonders.

The answer rolls out immediately, as if Amy had them prepared as she knew her friend would ask that question. "Well for starters he broke up Teddy and I's relationship last year - granted yes that was an accident but still, I'm thankful about that."

_"I knew about that. I just don't want to see you get hurt again by him, Ames."_

"Kylie, we were eight, it was a stupid little crush I had and got over within a few weeks."

_"Just be careful, okay, you know what he's like."_

Just then, a message pops through from the aforementioned. Amy smiled slightly to see he had responded quickly to her message she had sent just before she had gone on the phone with Kylie. She picks her phone up, mumbling a quick, "Okay, I will." as she replied back to Jake's text.

_**[17:58 pm - Jake] yh** **friday works c u outsid skool thn** _

_**[17:58 pm - Amy] Okay, see you there.** _

* * *

As they agreed a few days previously, Jake waits outside the school after PE on the Friday afternoon for Amy. It felt strange waiting against the school wall for someone - usually he's the first one out of the school on a Friday, thankful for the two days off ahead of him - so as he watched everyone else get on their buses or walk down the path because they lived reasonably close to the school, he can't help but smile slightly.

He was really glad Amy agreed to help him - he was expecting her to laugh (which granted, she did) before turning him down without a second thought. It got him thinking though, if they weren't friends - if she hated him after he accidentally broke her and Teddy up - would she still agree to help him knowing how desperate he needed it?

It was his fault he did badly on the exams, he is made aware of that every time he's given back a paper - he didn't revise. Amy did - hence why she got dozens of extra points as he did, bringing her result two (sometimes three) grades higher than his.

Amy then grasps his attention, calling his name and hitting him gently on the shoulder. When he turns to look at her she extends her hand forward slightly, pointing to the path leading away from the school. "You ready to go?" She asks.

Jake nods. "Yeah, sure."

They begin walking down in silence, looking from side to side as the left the gate and exited the school site. As soon as the gate shut behind himself, Jake reached down and pulled his shirt out from his pants, untucking it with a small smile, before bringing his tie down and unbuttoning the top button.

Amy rolls her eyes. "Feel better?"

"Mm-Hm." Jake hums as he widens the grin, looking to Amy as he rolled his sleeves up his arms slightly, exposing his wrists to the December chill of Brooklyn.

A beat passes before Amy drops her gaze down to Jake's wrists before making eye contact with him with a subtle turn of her lips. "I don't know how you can roll your sleeves up, it's freezing."

Jake shakes his head. "No, it's freezing for you because you get cold easily, hence the bobble hat," he remarks, pointing up to the beige hat sat on top of Amy's head, "but for me, I don't get cold unless it's like a snowstorm out here so I have no problem rolling my sleeves up."

Amy lets out a small smile before shaking her head. "No, you're crazy, you have to be if you have your arms out in December, it's like if you went out in a tank top in Alaska."

"I'd do it, and I'd show you that you're being weird." Jake says, returning a wide grin.

"I'd have no way of seeing it." Amy points out.

Jake shrugs. "You'd have to come with me then, but don't worry, you can bring seven coats and sixty hats to stand out in the snow if it makes you feel any better about it."

Amy nods. "Yeah, I'm so going to go to Alaska with you with to watch you get hypothermia."

"Challenge accepted." He smiles.

She rolls her eyes slightly before returning the smile.

It makes him think again; this must be the first time in a while that they're just joking around, not taking the piss of one another - which is how their relationship had been since the third or fourth grade. It's nice... he thinks anyway.

* * *

After much taunting from her brothers when she arrived back home with Jake - along with Jake having to deny the offer of staying for dinner at least a dozen time from Camila - they both managed to get upstairs into Amy's room to begin the entire reason as to why he walked here and will be walking back to his place in an hour or so.

Jake was allowed to pick which subject they covered first seen as he was the one who needed the help with all of them. He decided History first - as that was the one he did the worst at and he had the book in his bag from earlier that day.

They rambled on for an hour, Amy filling in the missing gaps that he either didn't understand or had refused to write down. Toward the end of the hour, he was beginning to understand the areas he had struggled with more with Amy covering it than he did while sitting in the classroom (although in his defense, the classroom had many distractions and sometimes watching out the window was more fun than watching the board as Scully explained what it was showing.

At the end of the "session" as Jake had called it, as to which Amy replied: _"It's not like therapy, Jake."_ , Amy asked him a few questions on the areas they had gone over in the past hour.

"Okay, first question, what caused the civil war?"

Jake looks down to the book slightly before Amy reaches forward and shuts it, telling him to answer from memory. He switches his gaze to around the room before looking back at Amy. "The differences of the free and slave states over who had power?" He replies hesitantly.

Amy nods before asking another. "What was the bloodiest battle fought during the civil war and how many casualties were there?"

"Oh, I know this one," he speaks up almost immediately, pride visible by the wide grin spread across his face, "It was Gettysburg with like 50,000 casualties."

She nods again. "When was the American Revolution?"

"1765 to 1783." He answers quickly, the smile still imprinted on his face.

"Well done, three out of three, you really did learn something." Amy responds, her voice sounded a little shocked.

"Why do you sound so surprised?" Jake asks.

Amy shrugs. "I just thought it would be a little harder to teach these things to you."

Jake forces a laugh, but the grin grows. "Well thanks for having faith in me."

"I'm joking, you did great today. History's a tough one to start with, but you've kind of proved that you can sit still and listen for an hour."

"Thank you." Jake says.

"So why don't you try sitting still and listening in lessons and then we wouldn't have had to do this in the first place?"

Jake pauses for a minute before shrugging. "I'm not a fan of listening in a classroom."

"Well, no surprise there." Amy replies back, a smile growing on her face.

A beat goes by before Jake breaks the silence. "But seriously, thank you for doing this, Ames, I really can't thank you enough, I owe you one now."

Amy can't help but feel her heart race slightly at the use of the pet name, it's the first time he's said that in a long time and she sets it aside to the shock of him using it.

She smiles again, packing up the books she had rested against the bed and on her lap. "It's fine, anything to help out a friend."

Jake takes a double-take to his phone beside him, checking the time and seeing a message from his mom asking when he was on his way home. He looks back up to Amy. "I'm gonna go, my mom's wondering how long I'm gonna be and we've covered everything I need so far with history."

She watches his stuff his books back in his ragged school bag before swinging in over his shoulder. "Well next time we can cover something else."

Jake nods. "Yeah, can do." He says before walking over to the bedroom door. He waits there for a minute before grabbing the door handle. "I'll let myself out. Thanks again, and I'll see you on Monday, Santiago."

"See you on Monday, Peralta." She repeats before saying goodbye and shutting the bedroom door as he left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading chapter 3 and until next time, ily all <33333


	4. i know something now i didn’t before

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is an unedited thing I wrote over the course of like three mornings this week at 6 am when I was up before 5... Enjoy :)
> 
> Chapter title from ‘Everything has Changed’ by Taylor Swift :)

“'Sup squadron." Gina greets the table in the back corner of the cafeteria as she walks over before sitting beside Rosa and smiling to her.

The table went around and did the greeting back in their normal way before Gina spoke up again.

"Okay, so we're breaking up from school tomorrow for the holidays, are you guys doing anything on New Year's Eve?" She asks, looking around the table.

Rosa immediately shakes her head. "Never do anything, it's an overrated celebration."

The rest of the group is a little more quiet for a moment before each one of them answers Gina's previous question. 

Charles is the first to break the small silence. "Well my dad and I always do a homemade, kinda erotic-" 

"Nope! Don't want to hear the rest of that." Gina cuts him quiet whilst putting her hand up to shush him quiet. She turns to Jake sitting directly in front of her. "What about you, Jakey?" 

Jake slowly shakes his head. "Na, my mom's working again." 

Gina then turns to Amy, furrowing her eyebrows slightly. "Ames?" She questions, turning her head to the side slightly. 

Amy shrugs. "I was just gonna be reading in my room trying to escape my brothers," she responds, resulting in a forced saddened  look from Gina. "Why are you asking?" She adds. 

"A very good question," Gina begins, a grin plastered on her face, "My mom is going to be out of town over the holiday and I am going to be throwing a party while she is gone and you're all invited."

Charles and Jake's faces both light up, a big grin growing, whilst Rosa looks semi-interested, yet Gina knows that might means she's waning like Jake and Charles. 

"Now, it would start at eight and finish when I say it's finished, there's just gonna be a few friends over, it's nothing huge." Gina explains, a smile on her face.

Rosa speaks up immediately. "I'm in, I'll be there." 

The rest of them nodded and agreed after Gina spent minutes convincing them to try and go, and "how it won't be good without you three". 

For Amy, the problem wasn't with the party it was trying to get her parents to let her go. But she knew if she gave it a little force, she could get her parents to give in. 

* * *

Two weeks later, Amy is being taken into Gina's apartment which apparently had a "few friends" pack into. If a 'few friends' meant what looked like a few hundred, then sure, there was definitely a few friends here.

Gina greeted her with a large smile. "Hey, Amy." She greets in a sing-song way, her words a little slurred. 

Amy furrows her eyebrows deeply. "Have you been drinking?" She asks, raising her voice over the music. 

"What? No," she replies, a guilty look in her face, "the alcohol's in the kitchen, you want some?" She asks.

Amy immediately shakes her head, putting her hand up to stop Gina from going back over there. "No, I don't because I'm sixteen and underage, and so are you." 

“Oh, pish posh, I don't care. You want any?" She asks.

Santiago can't help but roll her eyes before shaking her head again. "No thanks, Gina." Her friend nods before stumbling her way through the packed living room over to the kitchen again. 

Amy watches her disappear into the crowd before she starts pushing her way through too, looking for somewhere to sit down. 

She eventually makes her way to the couch, but it's filled with drunken teenagers laughing and making out with one another. She turns away quickly and makes a bee-line toward the front door again.

When she enters the hallway again, she shuts the apartment door shut behind her and it suddenly goes silent. As she was standing in the midst of the party she wondered why the cops hadn't been called already, but as she is stood in the silence of the hallway, the only barrier between her and the ravenous party is the wooden door, it is completely silent. 

_That's better_ , she thinks as she slides her way down the wall behind her and looking to the other apartment door in front of her. A moment later, the door she had just left through opens again, making the music fill the hallway again for a brief moment again before it goes quiet again as she somehow here's the door close again.She looks up and smiles to Jake, who was making his way around her feet and sitting beside her against the wall. She greets him with a small smile before he eyes fall upon the red cups in his hand, which makes her raise her eyebrows. "You're drinking too?" She asks.

Jake furrows his eyebrows slightly before looking down to the cups in his hands and laughing a little. "What? No, it's punch. I brought you one too." 

Amy smiles to him again and takes the offered cup out of his hand before taking a small sip from it. 

The silence between them is broken after a moment as Jake speaks up. "So, why are you sitting out here?" He asks.

She shrugs. "I just couldn't dare to see everyone from school get drunk behind their limits when their all underage." 

Jake nods. "I get that most of those people would, I mean Ryan Fields is here it was inevitable that people would drink when he showed up, but I can't believe Gina would. She's irresponsible, but that's ridiculous."

"Well I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that." Amy agrees before turning her body to face her friend. "So, where is everyone else? Rosa and Charles I mean."

He points to the door. "Charles is in there chatting up a girl he met and Rosa's with Gina, but she's been drinking too."

Amy can't help but nod little this time. "Well I kinda expected her to drink a little anyway."

"She was the one that brought the alcohol." Jake adds quickly.

A pause hits them both before Amy looks to Jake and speaks up again, raising her eyebrows. "So, Charles met a girl, huh? What's she like?"

Jake merely shrugs. "I'm not sure really, she seems nice. She likes gross foods as much as he does but she seems so much older than him, like senior older."

Amy furrows her eyebrows. "That's not that much older, that's the next grade up dumbass."

Jake quickly shakes his head. "No, like college senior." 

"Oh, then yeah that's a little older," Amy agrees, "What's her name?"

He shrugs again. "Don't know, all I do know is that Charles seems to like her."

Amy nods and smiles. "I'm glad, he deserves someone like him."

"Doesn't everyone?" Jake asks, taking a sip from the cup in his hand.

* * *

They continued to talk and joke for ages, making up different stories about the girl Charles had met, making up her backstory. They questioned what would have drawn her to Charles out of everyone in the room and asked how each other on their opinions on how she knew Gina. 

"Maybe she's Gina's moms boyfriends daughter." Jake suggested, furrowing his eyebrows.

Amy laughed a little loudly before turning her gaze to him. "That is very complicated, I like it." 

"Right?" Jake looks to her with the same goofy grin he had shown to her hundreds of times since he had sat down beside her outside the apartment. "It could totally work." 

They were in the midst of laughing at one of Jake's classic sex-tape jokes when Amy's phone pings from her pocket. 

She reaches down and grabs it, pulling it out and staring at her phone with a blank expression before typing something quickly and looking back up to Jake. "It's my mom, she's asking how long until I get home," she says as she stands up from the floor, "Which means be home in no more than twenty minutes or I'm coming to get you." She adds with a smile, helping Jake up from the floor too.

He nods, placing the plastic cups against the carpeted floor they had been sat at for hours now. It hadn't felt like hours, it felt like minutes really, but he had caught a glimpse of the tile on Amy's phone as she pulled it out from her pocket and it was almost midnight. 

"Oh, okay, well I'll walk you back," he offers, standing up from the floor before widening his eyes slightly as he stuffs his hands in his pocket, "You know, if you want me too, it's New Year's Eve in New York, there's some creeps out in the streets." He adds quickly.

Amy nods and smiles gently. "Yeah, I'd like that." 

They left the building, still talking to each other and laughing. Amy hadn't realized before how genuinely nice Jake could be if he tried, and it had only just dawned on her how cute that smile really was. It had once been annoying, the smug grin he'd give her from the other side of the classroom but as she had spent hours talking with him, she had noticed that her chest felt like it fluttered every time he smiled to her or he belted out in real laughter at something she said.

When they exited the building, she noticed that it was a little colder than she had thought, which is why she had brought the jacket with her. But even with the coat, she could still feel the New York winter chill. Jake notices a shiver in his side vision and he furrows his eyebrows to Amy walking beside him. "You cold." 

Amy nods slightly and blows it off. "A little, but I'm fine." 

They walk another block talking with each other before Jake sees another visible shiver from Amy. He shrugs his hoodie from his shoulders and places it over hers, smiling to her as she tried to decline.

As the coat fell into place upon her shoulders, Jake smiled, putting her arms back down to her side. "I told you before, I don't get cold and you are shivering." He reasons, making Amy give in and sink into his hoodie. It must have been a size or two too big, but it wrapped around her perfectly.

Amy beams up to him. "Thanks, you're sweet."

He has to smile back to hide the slight blush running up his cheeks, to make sure Amy doesn't see it. He looks to the floor for a moment before glancing back up at her and nodding. "You're welcome."

They walked the few blocks it was to Amy’s house, where Jake remained at the sidewalk as not to be seen from the front window of the house. The light was still on, so it must have meant that either one of Amy’s parents was still up ready to greet her when she entered the door. He’d rather not be chased back up the street in the other direction because he walked home with her. 

Amy smiles and looks up to meet his eyes as she handed back his hoodie, basically having to pry his hand open to place the hoodie in between his fingers. “Thank you for today, Jake, I really appreciate it.”

Jake returns back the grin and sways his foot slightly against the concrete path. “It’s nothing.” He denies with a little bit of mumble.

Amy takes a quick double take glance to the house and looks to the window with the light on. There wasn’t a shadow there and nobody was at the door, which she took as a good sign her parents weren’t secretly (or attempting to secretly) spy on her. “It is, you took yourself out of one of your best friends party to spend the night sitting on an apartment hallway floor with me and then you walk me home and lend me your hoodie. Thank you, I really appreciate it.”

He shrugs his shoulders. “I could tell you didn’t like the fact Gina was drinking, because you’re so uptight and all.”“Just when I thought we were getting along for once, you go and take the mick again.” She sighs before gently hitting her fist against his arm, making him squeal out slightly, his voice going an octave higher than usual. 

She laughs a little at his voice change, her laughter making him start to laugh along with her too, setting off the warm feeling in her chest that she had been feeling all night. 

She breaks their laughter by speaking up. “Seriously, Jake, thank you for what you did tonight. I wouldn’t have stayed if you didn’t come out with me. It was fun tonight.” 

He goes from staring wistfully at her as she spoke to looking to the side and smiling once she had stopped, giving him an opening. “It was nothing,” he says, folding his arms over his chest, “And I’m gonna have a chat with Gina, don’t worry.”

She steps forward and wraps her arms around his torso, taking him into a hug that takes him a second to fall into. When she pulls away after a moment, she puts a chaste kiss against his cheek before walking up to the house and waving goodbye to him. 

Jake waves back with a smile before stuffing his hands into his jeans pocket and walking back down the concrete, looking to the floor to hide the subtle blush creeping up his cheeks again. 


	5. everything you do is super fucking cute and i can't stand it

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shorter, filler chapter, sorry. And again, sorry for being gone for so long, it's just I didn't have much motivation for this story and I wasn't really sure what to write :)
> 
> Chapter title from 'Can't Stand It' by NeverShoutNever :)

She had noticed it not even five minutes into the last period of the day, and it was all she could see in the corner of her eye since then. Every new movement he made would have her looking to her side once it caught her gaze - every flick of his pen across his hand, every tap he made against the plastic wood, every click of his knuckles, every time he yawned before shaking his head quickly to keep himself awake. Every frickin movement, and it was driving her crazy.

He had caught her once. He had cracked his knuckles for the second time that lesson and, like it had done all lesson, it caught her attention and Amy drifted her eyes to watch the symmetrical pattern of his thumbs pushing down on the all the joints in both his hands. However, unlike all the other times, Jake had happened to catch her stare and he looked to her with raised eyebrows.

She thought to herself that she needs to be punctual too many times to count, but at this point she had given up. She was settling in to the fact that this wasn't a thing that she could push away and ignored - like her brothers - and that this was something a little bigger than allowed.

It had been a month and a half since New Years and the night that Jake spent the entire time with her outside an apartment because she had been too overwhelmed to stay inside the party. Since then, Amy had noticed that the warm feeling in her heart every time she heard Jake laugh hadn't gone away and that now she had noticed she seemed to feel warm whenever he did anything remotely sweet - even if it wasn't directed to her in the first place.

She knew exactly what was going on - it wasn't the first time she had felt this way around her friend - but she knew that she couldn't push it away this time. She knew it would never work anyway, they're just two different of people and she knows Jake doesn't see her in that way either - that's what is bothering her about this, she knows it's one-sided but it still won't go away and she finds herself blushing whenever he smiles in her direction - but her mind doesn't seem to want to take the memo.

"Amy." Jake breaks her out of whatever she had fallen into, poking her on the arm.

She blinks twice before nodding her head, humming in response to her name. "Hm?"

He furrows his eyebrows that creates the crease in his forehead, which makes her smile on the inside. "You're staring at me." He whispers.

She stares blankly before his words filter through her mind and she shakes her head, apologizing and looking down to the book in front of her.

In the corner of her eye, she can see him stare to the side of her face for a moment before turning back and focusing back on what he doing beforehand. He twists (or attempts to) the pen through his fingers while Amy stares from the side, thinking about him lacing his fingers through her hair instead.

As the thought processes, she widens her eyes to herself subtly before putting her head in her hand to face away from him.

* * *

After the class had finished, the pair had walked out of the school in silence. Jake is the first to break the somewhat tense quiet between them as they leave the door exiting the building. "What was with you in maths just then, you kept staring at me?" He asks as plainly as possible.

He was dying to know why she had been staring at him last period. He knew to respond by saying it was obvious if she asks why he knew she was staring, knowing full well to just himself that the only reason he knew she was staring at him was because he was doing it himself.

She shrugs as she opens the first gate into the front of the school. "You were distracting, which reminds me I've got a present for you." She announces before abruptly stopping.

Jake stops beside her and his eyes light up as she reaches into her bag before pulling out a grey lump of... something. She puts it in his hand and he furrows his eyebrows.

"What is this?" He wonders

"It's an eraser." She replies with a smile.

He tilts his head slightly. "I don't do art, why would I need an eraser?"

She stares at him blankly. "You don't just need an eraser for art, dumbass," she points out before taking it back and stretching it out, "And it's a kneadable eraser, you can fiddle around with that if you get fidgety in class rather than tapping on the table." She explains.

"Oh does the tapping annoy you?" He asks with a playful smirk.

Amy nods quickly. "Yes, I literally just says it distracts me."

"Right, and you're so uptight that being distracted annoys you, I get it." Jake nods with a grin whilst playing around with the eraser in his hands.

She just rolls her eyes before walking toward the car park - Thursdays were the day her dad picked her and the others up after school rather than them walking home. "I'll see you tomorrow, Jake."

He smiles and waves. "See you, and thanks for the eraser."

Once she's out of view, he turns around and pulls his phone from his blazer pocket and switches it on - as he turns it off every morning when he arrives because knowing him he'll forget to switch it on silent - before smiling to himself at his home screen picture of him, Amy, Charles, Gina and Rosa after school one day back in September. After he put his headphones in and walks home like he does every day.

When he gets back, he's surprised to see his mom's already home, usually she's still at work until late on a Thursday.

She greets him with a happy smile as he enters the living room. "Jakey, hi, how was school?"

He shrugs, like every day. "Eh, it was okay." He replies before taking his bag back to his room and throwing it on the bed.

"Honey, can you come back in here, I've got a little surprise for you?" Karen asks from the living room.

Jake replies with a loud mumble as he shrugs his blazer off his shoulder but before he can put it down next to his bag, he hears a familiar voice.

He leaves his room and enters the living room again and his heart drop. "Dad?" He asks with anger in his tone of voice as he draws his attention away from the eraser he had been focused on all the way home.

"Hey buddy, how was school?" Roger asks with a smile.

Jake doesn't respond. "What are you doing here?" He questions.

Roger takes a step closer. "I've come to have a family dinner with you and your mom."

"Oh, that's great, that's so cool." Jake responds before throwing his blazer back over his shoulders before walking out the front door again, his mom calling for him as he slammed it shut.

Before he knew it, he had walked a few blocks away and that's when he pulls his phone out, calling the first person he could think of.

 _"Jake, what's wrong? You never call me after school."_ Amy asks, her voice making a small smile creep up Jake's face.

"Can I come over?" He questions quickly, ignoring her previous question.

She pauses for a brief second. _"Yeah, of course, what's wrong?"_ She repeats.

He sighs. "I'll explain when I get there. I'll see you in a minute." He says before hanging up the phone.


	6. in a world that's full of darkness you're my light

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was really looking forward to writing this one so I did it really quickly. I was gonna make you wait a little longer but I felt like being nice for a change haha. Also, I'm just in a really good mood because the performance I've been learning since September went really well today and I didn't forget my lines like I was so sure I was gonna do XD
> 
> Chapter title from 'Best Thing' by Anthem Lights :)

As soon as she got the text from Jake saying he was outside the door, Amy quickly left her room and went down to let him out of the cold February wind - or at least she found it cold.

He thanked her before passing her into the hallway. As she shut the door behind him, he apologized. "I'm sorry for giving you no warning whatsoever, I just had to get out of there."

Amy furrows her eyebrows before crossing her arms across her chest. "What happened?"

Jake pauses and looks around the small, narrow hall before looking back to his friend with curiosity in his eyes. "Can we go somewhere a little more private?" He wonders.

She immediately nods her head and goes toward the stairs, signalling for him to follow. They both go up to her room in silence and only speak again once her bedroom door is closed. She turns to face him after closing the door and smiles subtly when she sees him looking around her room as if this was his first time in here.

Amy steps forward and gets his attention. "So what happened?" She repeats before sitting down on the bed.

Jake sighs deeply before flopping down on the mattress beside her. "My dad came back and, uh, I don't know. I guess I didn't want to be around him."

She pauses for a moment, knitting her eyebrows together. She had never actually heard the full story surrounding his father, all she knew was that he never saw him.

"Why did he come back?" She asks.

"Probably to take advantage of my mom before stealing money and taking off once again." Jake sighs, slumping his head down to look to the floor.

"He wouldn't do that, Jake." Amy replies, making her friend lift his head back up again to stare at her for a moment with a disapproving look.

Jake subtly shakes his head. "You don't know him like I do, he's a master manipulator. He'll take advantage of anyone in reward for purloining money and escaping without a trace."

Amy sighs to herself before looking her friend in the eyes again. "So you think he's come to purloin money, as you put it, and then flee?"

"Oh I'm certain that's what he's gonna do, it's what he always does." He answers, hanging his head low once again. After a silent beat between the two of them, Jake looks back up. "That's why I left, I couldn't stand to sit there and have dinner with him while he lies and apologizes for something he isn't even sorry for. My mom can be gullible and every time he comes back, she falls down into his trap and is heartbroken when he evidently stabs her in the back, and I don't want to see that."

Amy is slightly taken aback by this before wrapping her arm over her shoulder to pull him in for a sideways hug. She feels him tense up for a spilt second before he relaxes and puts his head against her shoulder.

"It's really sweet of you how much you care about your mom." She says calmly.

She can feel him shrug from under her arm. "It's always been just me and her, I don't want to see her upset again."

Amy then tightens her arm. "I don't think there's much you can do though, Jake, other than to tell him to leave there isn't much else."

Jake nods against her shoulder. "I might just have to do that then." He says with a little chuckle. This makes Amy smile, hearing him laugh.

She nods along with him. "Okay, sure I'd love to see that."

He sits up and looks somewhat hurt. "I could beat the crap out of him if I wanted to."

Amy can't help the snort of laughter that escapes before she immediately covers her mouth and apologizes.

Jake smiles and waves his hand to shake it off. "No, it's fine, laugh, it's probably true anyway."

She removes her hand and laughs a little. "No offense but you could not beat your father up."

"Like I said before, you're probably right about that." He replies confidently with a small laugh in his voice.

Just then, a ping comes from Jake's blazer pocket and he reaches inside to grab his phone out. As he looks to the screen he sighs again, his face dropping from the lighthearted grin to a frown.

Amy's face immediately falls upon seeing his drop down. She turns to her side to face him onward and leans forward an inch. "What? What's wrong?" She asks somewhat frantically.

He shakes his head and puts his phone back into the inside pocket of his blazer. "It's just my mom, wondering where I am."

"Aren't you going to tell her?" Amy questions.

He shrugs his shoulders. "Why should I? If I don't maybe she'll send Roger out to look for me and he won't come back."

Amy furrows her eyebrows slightly. "Won't he go back to tell your mom that he couldn't find you?"

Jake shakes his head once again. "No, cause he'll leave again, for a reason I'm not so sure about."

A silent beat passes between them before Amy breaks the tension she felt flood the room. Maybe it was just her that felt the tension, but it was definitely there. "Well, I'm sorry that you have to deal with this." She says before bringing her friend into a proper hug this time, wrapping her arms up around his neck.

They stay like that for a while, but in all fairness Amy doesn't quite mind it. She rests her head in the nape of his neck and smiles as she feels the warmth radiating from his body on to hers.

She feels him smile before he speaks up. "Thank you, Ames, you're an amazing friend. I'd be lost without you."

This puts a smile to her face. "I'd be lost without you too." She whispers, moving her head up from his neck to whisper in his ear.

Jake pulls his head away from hers a mere inch away before gazing down to her lips for a brief moment. Amy does the same once seeing her friend do it before leaning forward, putting her lips to his.

She swears she feels her heart jump when she realizes he's actually kissing her back and feels her body shiver as he snakes his hand up her back. It feels as though both fireworks and butterflies go off as she begins to rake her fingers through the back ends of his hair. As they both begin to sink into the kiss, the sharp pounding against her wooden bedroom door quickly breaks them apart.

"Hey! Mom says dinners ready!" She hears Luis yell through.

She knows he's still there when the sound of his feet aggressively hitting the floor underneath doesn't muffle toward the bedroom.

"Okay, I'll be right there." She replies back, her mouth dry, looking to the closed door for a second as she hears him leave and go downstairs before locking eyes with Jake again.

He looks up from the mattress to meet her eyes with a shy smile. She sees him swallow hard before pointing to the bedroom door. "I should go, let you enjoy your dinner."

Amy tries to hide her face fall before nodding along. "Okay, yeah sure, I'll walk you out."

They remain sat for a moment, staring awkwardly to each other before they both pounce up from the mattress and walk down the stairs to the front door in silence.

As he opens the front door to leave, he turns back and smiles subtly. "Thanks again, Ames."

She nods, gazing to the floor before looking back up to him and smiling in return. "You're welcome."

"Bye." He says quickly before shutting the door behind him as he left.

When she turns around to enter the dining room, she jumps out of her skin to find Luis stood behind her. She stares at him confusedly as she's sure he was already sat at the table. Before she can ask, however, he cuts her short.

"Who was that?" He asks, tilting his head to one side slightly.

Amy shrugs, leading him toward the door of the dining room. "Nobody important."

As she pushes him forward, he turns his head over his shoulder to face her. "Is he your boyfriend?"

Amy quickly shakes her head in response. "What? No, Jake's just a friend." She denies, continuing to push her youngest brother through to the dining room, attempting to keep his head forward to stop him from seeing the clear pink rising up her cheeks.


	7. if you were an ice-cream flavour, you would be my favourite one

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here's another chapter! just a little notice, i'm just taking a break on the squad for a moment as i'm stuck with it atm. any help will be greatly appreciated, and if you're amazing enough to offer help you will know the premise for the next chapter before it's posted. you can contact me on instagram (my handle there is the same as ao3) as well as wattpad (my handle is @h_i_234). 
> 
> chapter title from 'All About Your Heart' by Mindy Gledhill :)

She hadn't heard from him after he left abruptly the night before, which was strange. Since New Year, they had always text just before they both went to bed, and on Thursdays, he always checked to make sure he was still okay to come over after school the following to do their weekly revision session - which had been proving incredibly useful to both Jake and Amy, but that's not the point. However, last night neither of the messages came through from him.

So as she walked into the school on the Friday morning, she can't help but fiddle with her hands and look down to the floor.

The memories from the previous night flood around her as she approaches closer to the school, closer to seeing her friend she had kissed the night before. She can't stop thinking about negative reasons as to why he hadn't contacted her the night before, "what if he didn't like it?" "Then why did he kiss back?" "Maybe he was just being polite" "But I know Jake wouldn't do it just because he feels like he has too" the voice in her head rambles on, it getting louder and louder as she approaches the front gate.

That's when she sees him. He's standing by the front door into the school, looking around the surroundings to himself. She can't tell if he's waiting for Charles' bus to come in or not, so she goes up to him anyway - not that she had any choice if she wanted to to or not, he was standing directly beside the front door into the building.

When his eyes meet hers, a smile grows in his face. "Hey!" He calls over when she's still twenty feet or so away before picking his bag from the floor, swinging it over his shoulder and jogging the short distance between the two of them.

"Hi." She greets with an equal smile and they walk toward the door side by side.

Before they can reach it, however, Jake pulls her to the side and turns her to face him.

Amy looks up to him with curiosity. "What are you doing?" She wonders.

He doesn't respond straight away and he waits for a group younger students to enter the building before they're in the clear. "I was thinking about last night on the way to school today-"

She cuts him off, raising her hand up to stop him. "Before you continue, I'm really sorry about it. I've been thinking about it too, and I shouldn't have made a move on you when you were venting to me about your dad. It was inappropriate."

Jake shakes his head. "No, you didn't let me finish, I don't care that you did that. If I'm being honest, it was the best kiss of my life, not that I've got a lot to compare it to but that's not the point."

Amy looks around cautiously before looking sadly to her friend. "No, it shouldn't have happened, Jake, you know the school's policy about things like this."

"But you have got to admit it was a great kiss."

"Will you stop saying it so loud? You know Cozner has crazy hearing," Amy asks, putting her voice down to the example. "But yes, if you must know, it was a great kiss that isn't allowed to happen."

Jake nods. "You're right."

Amy furrows her eyebrows, looking questionably to her friend. "I am? Since when are you willingly admitting it?"

Jake smirks. "Since you're letting me buy you ice-cream, after school, today."

"It's February." Amy says, pointing out the clear obvious.

The smirk becomes a grin in a matter of seconds. "That wasn't a no."

Amy goes to respond before the bell rings from the inside of the school. "Fine, but only as friends, it's not a date because you know it can't be a date."

Jake nods. "Just as friends, it's to thank you for all you're help with our Friday after school work."

Amy smiles "Then it's a friend-date," she says as she walks backwards into the school, "I'll see you in homeroom."

* * *

They had arranged the remainder of the details throughout history first period and throughout double English second and sixth when Holt wasn't watching.

So after the, what felt like eternity long, final hour after lunch, they both met up at the front of the school.

Amy told her brothers to leave without her and told them to explain she went out with a friend if they wondered where she went, and they leave without a problem.

They both say goodbye to Charles as he boards his bus, as well as Rosa and Gina as they board their own one. After they've done that, they take a slow walk down outside the school.

"Have you noticed anything off between Rosa and Gina recently?" Amy eventually asks as they finally get the street that the ice-cream parlour was.

Jake furrows his eyebrows slightly. "What do you mean?" He asks.

"Oh c'mon you can't deny you haven't seen it, they're acting all secretive and seem cuddly around each other." Any says.

"They've known each other years, they're best friends, they're just extra friendly around each other, it just takes a while for them to come out of their shell and make it more obvious." Jake replies blankly, looking forward.

Amy smiles. "Believe what you want, I think there's something going on between them."

Jake shakes his head. "I've known them both since elementary school, so I know something isn't going in between them. And even if something was, which there isn't, why haven't they told us?"

She shrugs, the smile still on her face. "I don't know, maybe they're keeping themselves a secret."

"Right of course, and how on earth did you figure that out?" Jake questions, pulling the door to the parkour open and allowing Amy through first.

"Just simple things they do and say to each other. My dad's a detective, I pick little things up, little things that the stays quo people don't pick up on."

Jake attempts to look insulted before shrugging it off, approaching the front till. "I would try to pretend to be hurt, but I don't know what status quo means."

Amy smiles, rolling her head to the side to hide the grin from Jake.

"What do you want?" He asks, grabbing her attention again.

Amy stares to him for a moment. "For you to know what status quo means."

He shakes his head with a small turn in his lips visible. He chuckles a little, pointing up to the sign. "No, what do you want?"

"Oh!" Amy says before laughing and answering. "Just vanilla."

"Just vanilla? That's boring." He says, looking to the sign himself before helping out when Amy punches him. "Ow!"

He orders his and Amy's and waits by the till for them to be served up. After which, he hands Amy hers and they go over to one of the empty tables in the corner.

Amy looks up for a moment. "How did you know I like ice-cream?"

Jake shrugs, plastering an obvious look on his face. "Everyone likes ice-cream, it's like chocolate."

Amy can't help but smile. "Did you know why chocolate makes you happy?"

He nods his head. "It's because it's sweet, which makes you happy."

Amy rolls her eyes and cracks a smile. "No, it's because it's got serotonin in, which is a chemical that makes you happy."

Jake suddenly looks really confused. "Sero- what?" He asks, his brows furrowing into one.

"Serotonin... you know? One of the neurotransmitters that produces a happy feeling?"

Jake just looks blankly to her for a moment before shaking his head. "You lost me at neurotransport-or-whatnot."

Amy rolls her eyes again so hard she swears she can see the inside of her skull. "How the hell are you passing science?"

With a straight face, Jake quickly replies. "Oh, I'm not."

Amy lets out a laugh, which causes Jake to smile widely.

After a moment, Amy speaks up again. "Well, know we know what we need to work on then, don't we?"

Jake nods, the smile growing wider on his face.

* * *

Soon after they had finished their ice-cream, the two of them left the parlor and began wandering around. Before they knew it, they had ended up in the park which was probably about a mile from where they had been before.

It had been a slow walk there, them discussing school and Amy throwing her arguments toward Jake about how she was convinced something was going on between Rosa and Gina, and how it must have been going on since at least New Year. She even managed to explain what status quo meant to him.

By the time they got there, Jake had begun to complain about his legs getting tired, so they took opposite sides of the spider web swing that was slap bang in the middle of the park and they had stayed in the same place in the thirty minutes or so they had been at the park.

"Right, right, okay. You make a good case, Santiago, with some solid class evidence." Jake eventually says, giving into her arguments.

She takes a subtle bow. "Thank you."

He interrupts her before she can say more. "However, I still don't believe that Rosa and Gina are a thing."

"I can prove it if you want." Any says quickly, inching closer to him.

Jake hesitates for a moment. "How the hell are you going to prove that?" He questions.

"I'll find a way." Amy mumbles under her breath before pulling her phone out from her inside blazer pocket.

"If you call them, they won't pick up and either way will deny it in anyway." Jake sighs, inching himself closer on the swing to peer over her shoulder to see her phone.

She pushes him away gently with her elbow, hitting his torso and making him collapse in on himself. "No peeking."

Jake sits up and laughs. "Why not? It's nothing personal."

She looks up from her screen and grins slyly to him. "I know, but you get cute when you're frustrated, and if I don't let you see you'll get frustrated."

"You think I'm cute?" Jake wonders, raising his eyebrows.

She awkwardly nods her head. "When you get grumpy."

A grin appears on Jake's face. "I can get grumpy if you want."

Amy looks back down to her phone and tilts her head to the side. "I'd like to see you try."

"Challenge accepted," he broadly smiles before pausing as Amy looks up to him for a moment, "Let me see your phone."

Without looking to him, she shakes her head. "No."

He asks again, as to which she denies. Then when she's not looking, he leans across the swing and grabs the phone from her hands and moves back to the edge of the swing again.

She stares to him blankly, putting her hand out. "Jake, give me my phone back."

He takes a double-take to the phone he now had in his hand before looking back to Amy. "Why would I give it back?" He wonders.

She pounces forward in order to retrieve the phone but he moves out the way a little so she can't grasp it.

"I don't see how this is making you grumpy, which is the challenge you said you'd do. The challenge wasn't to make me hit you." Amy sighs, glaring at the man-child in front of her.

Jake shrugs. "It started off as that, but I've decided this is way more fun."

"I hate you so much, give me it back." Amy instructs, leaning forward to try and grab the phone from him again.

"Why?" He questions, looking to the phone again, "Is there private stuff in here?" He teases.

Amy rolls her eyes. "God, you're such a jerk, give it back." She says.

"Then how come you're smiling?" He wonders.

It was true, Amy had been smiling the entire time, apart from the moment he had taken the phone from her hands. She couldn't help but smile, if this had been one of her brothers they would have given her the phone back already because they could hold it any longer, but she doesn't do anything she knows would hurt him in order to get the phone back again.

"I can't help it, give it back." She repeats, trying to keep a straight face.

Jake grins to her before shaking his head again. "Nah, I think I'll keep it for a bit longer, maybe take a peek too."

She's not sure what runs through her mind, but an idea comes up to make him drop the phone and before she thought it through, she had already slammed her lips against his. It may have not been right to do so, knowing the conversation they had had just earlier in that day, but it works as she feels the phone drop beside her as his hands land immediately against her back as though it was a reflex.

Amy quickly rips away after a second longer, much to Jake's dismay - obvious to the drop in his face. "No, that was wrong of me, I'm sorry."

He shakes his head. "Don't be." He replies, his voice a little more hoarse than it was before. "You don't need to be sorry, it was nice."

Amy pauses for a moment, her hands still resting against his arms. "It was?" She breathes out.

Jake nods, licking his lips subtly. "Yeah, it was." He replies.

She can feel her heart pick up as he says this and the next decision was quickly acted on again. "Good." She replies quickly before kissing him again. A satisfied hum escapes from them both as Amy pushes her lips against his.

Jake returns his hands to her back and as the kiss deepened, he moved one up to the bottom of her hair before grasping a small section of it at the root.

She puts her hands against his cheeks, her frozen fingers burning against the drastic temperature change against his skin. She moves one of her hands and wraps it smoothly around his neck, pushing him gently closer toward her, her humming as she feels her nose rub up against his own.

It takes a beat or two before they both break apart, Amy resting her forehead against his. When she pulls away from him entirely, she watches his Adam's apple bob as he swallows thickly before speaking up.

He blinks slowly before talking hoarsely. "Wow."

Amy smiles widely, laughing a little to herself. She nods quickly, keeping her gaze locked on either his eyes or his lips. "Wow indeed."

Jake takes a deep breath, his chest rising prominently before he leans in again, Amy meeting him halfway, pressing their lips together again.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments would be greatly appreciated, they're an author's lifeblood, and I love reading what you guys comment, it makes my day :) Also, kudos would be appreciated too xx


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